# What do bugs taste like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 29, 2008, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-bugs-taste-like/465667 "2008-09-29T04:15:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-bugs-taste-like/465667/21 "2008-09-29T21:23:01Z")
I’ve had cicada, and I would say it tastes nutty, with a hint of canned asparagus and a little bit of grassiness. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-bugs-taste-like/465667/22 "2008-09-29T21:25:46Z")
I tried witchety grubs in Australia, IIRC they had been lightly roasted. I was reminded, in both taste and texture, of a soft-boiled egg. Not completely disgusting, definitely something you would eat if you were starving, and probably long before that if you weren’t grossed out by the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-bugs-taste-like/465667/23 "2008-09-29T22:03:45Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d squish you, but that would give bug juice a bad name. > And all kids love bug juice! > But remember, he who kills it must refill it! ~~Space Ghost ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-bugs-taste-like/465667/24 "2008-09-29T22:12:46Z")
In the movie [Good Morning Miss Dove](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Morning_Miss_Dove)a New England schoolteacher (Jennifer Jones) states emphatically that ants taste like pickles. No idea if this is true. My own grade school teacher ate cooked locusts once as part of her church outting because the Bible states John the Baptist ate them. She said they taste a lot like shrimp (which would make sense as, IINM, they’re somewhat related). There’s a very good chance she ate bugs in vain as the NT was very probably talking about the [carob](http://www.cookingwiththebible.com/xml-images/bible/GR3410/media/fig014_001.jpg)(“fruit” of the[locust tree](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_locust)) rather than bugs, but this is a matter of some [debate](http://www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/3664/locusts.html). I don’t recall whether or not she or others in her Sunday School classed dressed in [camel hair](http://images.overstock.com/f/102/3117/8h/www.overstock.com/images/products/P10254846.jpg)with [leather girdles](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RxYeDi31L.jpg)or ate wild honey which the Baptist did also. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-bugs-taste-like/465667/25 "2008-09-30T01:33:01Z")
> [@](#): > > There’s a very good chance she ate bugs in vain as the NT was very probably talking about the carob (“fruit” of the locust tree) rather than bugs, but this is a matter of some debate. Claiming that John really ate the fruit of the locust tree rather than the actual insect is, in mu opinion (and think most scholarly opinion) straining at a gnat rather than swallowing the locust. Other folks in that area of the world ate grasshopper-type locusts. Aristotle was supposed to be a big fan, himself. When the locusts ate your crops, you often didn’t have much of a choice, but lots of folks would eat them as a matter of choice. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-bugs-taste-like/465667/26 "2008-09-30T03:03:46Z")
I had a bundegi (silkworm pupa) in Korea. I remember the texture more than the taste. It was really gritty. I think it was kind of bitter, but I may have blocked that part out. (It had been sautéed with some onions–not by me–but it didn’t help.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-bugs-taste-like/465667.md?page=1)